DShomshak

Speaking of contagious plagues... I ran one in my second Keystone Konjurors campaign (playtest for the Ultimate Mystic trilogy). Only in mine, the plague was Barbie.
 
The player of one of the PCs, Artifex, said the Master of Cosmic Craft had made a 0-point Follower for his stylish loft apartment in Babylon: a human-size, living Barbie doll. Live-in housekeeper. I think: Okay. And, well, bed partner. I think: Ew. Then think: MUAH HA HA HA! Because Barbie is a powerful archetype, one of the best known toys in the world, and a focus of bizarre obsessions. Plus there's that manically/creepily cheerful song by Aqua. "I'm a Barbie girl, In a Barbie World. Life in plastic -- it's fantastic!"
 
It started as apparently a different adventure, I think there was a fire demon. Anyway, some bystanders get hit in the fighting, and one of them partly melts instead of getting burned. He's a living plastic mannikin. He also has no soul. The PCs find other soulless plastic people... and they're turning humans into more plastic people. The PCs eventually traced it back to Artifex's Barbie simulacrum, who is absorbing all the reality from the transformed people and growing into a nascent cosmic entity; also turning Artifex's apartment into a colorful molded plastic Barbie World. Called on this, Barbie tells Artifex to defend her, which he finds he must do: He was Barbie's first victim and working for her all along. Artifex tries to convince the others that this is a good thing. There is no old age, sickness or death in Barbie World. The Dragon would be destroyed. The others did manage to get through to him and convince him to turn against Barbie and destroy her. So, um, yay?
 
Good times.
 
Dean Shomshak

Mass transformation of people into a different species.
 
Example: In an issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA years ago, Marvel villain The Viper transformed the population of Washington, D. C. into berserk snake-people. I don't remember why she though this was a good idea, but as best I recall she's kind of nuts.
 
Marvel villain Stegron the Dinosaur Man wanted to turn people into dino-humanoids like himself. He expected he'd rule the altered humanity.
 
In a recent adventure, the PCs in my campaign fought a mad villain from a doomed future in which humanity was almost extinct after a massive nuclear war against the and between megavillains. A group of survivor scientists mutated themselves into grotesque but nigh-unkillable and radiation-resistant creatures (sort of like D&D Umber Hulks). They realized, however, that they were too few to form a viable breeding population. They sent the villain back in time to get a heaqd start by mutating a bunch of people before the war starts, whether the people want it or not. Reconstructing the process with available tools required experimentation, though, resulting in ferocious mutant creatures in the city sewers and subways -- including victims of not-quite-successful human experiments. CHAMPIONS dungeon crawl!
 
Dean Shomshak

I've used open source textbooks for my physics and chemistry classes from the last six or seven years. The State Board of Education actually produces a series of OER (open source) textbooks for math and science here. I've been a part of the group that develops them.

I haven't found a really good news article to link, but if anyone's interested...
 
Two of the Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump come from Washington state. Both were targeted by Trump-backed, full-on wackadoodle Big Lie supporters. Those challengers have failed to advance through Washington's "Top Two" primary system. In November, Reps Jaime Herrerra-Beutler and Dan Newhouse will both face Democratic challengers, as the Trumpians came third. So there's that, at least.
 
Dean Shomshak

Of course I'm serious. I would not post it if I were not serious. However, I brought up the Bolsheviks only as an example of how a committed, disciplined group of radicals can achieve power without truly representing the popular will. I agree that compared to the likes of Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky, American conservatives are a bad joke. But then, many modern Americans are a lot softer and sillier than were the Russians of the time. American conservatives have also been working at this for a lot longer than the Bolsheviks did.
 
And I am also entirely serious in expecting that post-Trumpian conservatives, should they achieve the House-Senate-White House trifecta again, would become democidally dangerous. I'm sure at first they would follow Viktor Orban's model of "illiberal democracy," in which elections still happen but are so rigged that the opposition can't win. But much of what the base wants isn't politically possible. LGBT+ people are not going back in the closet. Black people will not touch their foreheads and say, "Yassuh," nor accept being addressed as "Boy." The mills will not re-open with plentiful jobs for semi-skilled labor. And many in the base will still feel the scalding sense that the educated, credentialed elites sneer at them. The Republicans will have to turn to repression, then violence, then terror.
 
I would rather avoid this. Since I don't think the country can be put back together again, I think there's value in exploring methods for an amicable separation.
 
Dean Shomshak

Lead Author: H. West.

Of course I'm serious. I would not post it if I were not serious. However, I brought up the Bolsheviks only as an example of how a committed, disciplined group of radicals can achieve power without truly representing the popular will. I agree that compared to the likes of Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky, American conservatives are a bad joke. But then, many modern Americans are a lot softer and sillier than were the Russians of the time. American conservatives have also been working at this for a lot longer than the Bolsheviks did.
 
And I am also entirely serious in expecting that post-Trumpian conservatives, should they achieve the House-Senate-White House trifecta again, would become democidally dangerous. I'm sure at first they would follow Viktor Orban's model of "illiberal democracy," in which elections still happen but are so rigged that the opposition can't win. But much of what the base wants isn't politically possible. LGBT+ people are not going back in the closet. Black people will not touch their foreheads and say, "Yassuh," nor accept being addressed as "Boy." The mills will not re-open with plentiful jobs for semi-skilled labor. And many in the base will still feel the scalding sense that the educated, credentialed elites sneer at them. The Republicans will have to turn to repression, then violence, then terror.
 
I would rather avoid this. Since I don't think the country can be put back together again, I think there's value in exploring methods for an amicable separation.
 
Dean Shomshak

I haven't found a really good news article to link, but if anyone's interested...
 
Two of the Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump come from Washington state. Both were targeted by Trump-backed, full-on wackadoodle Big Lie supporters. Those challengers have failed to advance through Washington's "Top Two" primary system. In November, Reps Jaime Herrerra-Beutler and Dan Newhouse will both face Democratic challengers, as the Trumpians came third. So there's that, at least.
 
Dean Shomshak

I haven't found a really good news article to link, but if anyone's interested...
 
Two of the Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump come from Washington state. Both were targeted by Trump-backed, full-on wackadoodle Big Lie supporters. Those challengers have failed to advance through Washington's "Top Two" primary system. In November, Reps Jaime Herrerra-Beutler and Dan Newhouse will both face Democratic challengers, as the Trumpians came third. So there's that, at least.
 
Dean Shomshak

Given the number of worlds and peoples Istvatha V;han rules, it is virtually certain that some of those worlds generated Umaginal Reals. I haven't read Book of the Empress, so I can't say if anything like this is described there. Regardless, this field seems wide open for GMs to invent their own. My little e-book, Spells of the Devachan: Thaumaturgy from the Sorcerer's Galaxy (available from the HERO Store) includes brief descriptions of some alien Imaginal Worlds you could easily drop into the CU.
 
IIRC, though, Istvatha V'han has conquered several alternate Earths. This brings up a question I never considered in The Mystic World:  Do those alternate Earths also have alternate Parterres? (I didn't consider it because it's just a whole big can of worms, for a book that was already running long.) My first thought, though, is that the alternate Earths each have their own alternate Parterres... including some Earths where one Parterre or another became so dominant it merged with that Earth. But the Multiverse imposes very strong barriers between alternate Imaginal Realms -- even stronger than between material worlds -- so there's not much possibility of, say, multiple Netherworlds teaming up for a cross-dimensional attempt at conquest.
 
I'd be interested to know if Book of the Empress says anything about how Istvatha V'han deals with the Parterres of the Earths she's conquered. If she leaves them alone, the various godly entities might not object to her conquest. After all, she doesn't generally try to impose or suppress native religions. They also might be reluctant to intervene because it's a setting rule that Earth's spirits are very weak against creatures from the Outer Planes. (A rule created so humanity must rely on its own heroes to stop dimensional conquerors, rather than relying on gods.) So it seems quite possible that on some alternate Earths, V'hanian forces conquered the Parterres as well. Heh, imagine a world where the Mythic Resistance Front is led by Tezcatlipoca, Marduk, Mephistopheles and the Archangel Michael. Yeah, these guys are not going to have an easy time working together.
 
Dean Shomshak

I haven't found a really good news article to link, but if anyone's interested...
 
Two of the Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump come from Washington state. Both were targeted by Trump-backed, full-on wackadoodle Big Lie supporters. Those challengers have failed to advance through Washington's "Top Two" primary system. In November, Reps Jaime Herrerra-Beutler and Dan Newhouse will both face Democratic challengers, as the Trumpians came third. So there's that, at least.
 
Dean Shomshak

An interesting read:
 
The Self-Fulfilling Prophecies of Clarence Thomas
 
 

The Economist reports that the young conservatives of a new crop of post-Trumpian think-tanks policy shops are ebullient. And with reason. They are correct, at least, that the current liberal elites are utterly ineffectual. They don't care if the majority is against them, because the majority, provably, is passive.
 
The Bolsheviks didn't take over Russia because they represented the will of most Russians. They took over because they wanted it more, and their opposition was fragmented and inept. They kept power for 70 years, in large part by murdering all the opposition once they attained the power to do so.
 
The raw hatred and contempt openly expressed by many modern conservatives suggests they will do the same.
 
Ultimately, such tactics must break the US as a world power. But the United States of Real America would start out from a much stronger position than the Soviet Union did, and can cause a lot more damage before it self-destructs or is taken down.
 
It's why I'm trying to promote my "Sell the Cities to Canada" plan. I can only hope that conservatives would rather quickly and easily foist the people they no longer consider Real Americans onto another country, than punish the rest of us for our wickedness.
 
Dean Shomshak

This. Brushing up on her background, the key element is that the Shadow Queen is a fairy tale creature and her Shadow Realm is part of the wider Land of Legends. So she's not going to do something sensible and rationally planned out such as steal money to endow a nicer orphanage. She'll abduct the children into the Shadow Realm and try fitting them into a fairy tale -- or she didn't think that far ahead and lets the narrative nature of the Land of Legends shape what happens.
 
One option: the Shadow Queen shapes an island as the orphans' playset new home, imagining it'll be Neverland, with the orphans as the Lost Boys. Perhaps she even deputizes one of her minions to act as their version of Peter Pan. Except, 1) this is the Shadow Realm, so this "Neverland" might be gloomier, creepier, and more dangerous than the original; and 2), real children are not as sweet and innocent as J. M. Barrie's Edwardian versions. The result might be less Peter Pan, more Lord of the Flies.
 
Another option: The Shadow Queen is not a woman who can summon or turn into a dragon, she's a dragon who can take human form. As we all know, fairy-tale dragons are hoarders. In this version, the Shadow Queen takes the children to live with her in her castle. She provides all the material things they could want. However, she doesn't really "get" human emotions and social needs. After the novelty of toys and cake wears off, the kids might get really bored. Or frightened, especially once they realize their hyper-protective/possessive new "mother" won't let them go outside.
 
You can combine these elements. Maybe the Shadow Queen releases the children into her "Neverland" and apparently forgets about them. But when the heroes from Earth come to rescue them, she reacts with the possessive fury of a dragon whose hoard is being robbed.
 
Another factor: Faerie is timeless. The abducted children will never grow up. Whatever situation they are in, they will be in forever if the heroes do not rescue them. And no, the heroes probably cannot convince the Shadow Queen to ordain a region in which time can pass normally and the children can grow up normally. She isn't that patient, or that human.
 
Dean Shomshak
This too. One more reason the heroes need to rescue the children.
 
Dean Shomshak

https://somethingpositive.net/comic/itsy-bitsy-zombies/

From one of the articles linked by Cygnia:
 
The leaked images also show the rules state "Races in SFNG [Star Frontiers: New Genesis] are not unlike races in the real world. Some are better at certain things than others, and some races are superior than others. We get into this later on in the manual." More eugenics from the white writer who can't form coherent sentences.
The leaked manual also describes the Black Lives Matter and Anti-Fascist movements as radical - because being opposed to racism and not liking fascists is apparently extreme.
 
It seems pretty clear the writer is avowedly racist, not merely clueless.
 
Dean Shomshak
 

Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura on ‘Star Trek,’ Dies at 89

A very quick search found this for California:
https://covid19.ca.gov/state-dashboard/#postvax-status
 

"It sometimes occurs to a dimension’s defenders (as it may to Human superheroes) to try to enlist their gods to fight off a V’hanian invasion. Sadly for them, this will almost certainly not happen.
 
As discussed on page 61 of The Mystic World, the gods of Earth owe their existence and power to Human belief; the gods of other species are similarly dependent on their worshippers [sic]. That means that a god’s supernatural powers cannot directly affect anything or anyone from beyond the Inner Planes defined by that species. This means, for example, that Earth’s gods are largely helpless against Tyrannon and Skarn...
 
...and against Istvatha V’han. While she’s not strictly from an Outer Plane, she’s discovered time and time again that a reality’s gods don’t seem to have any power over her. Whether she’s sufficiently “multiversal” to “count” as being from an Outer Plane or her multiversally unique nature makes her the equivalent of an Outer Plane being, or there’s some other explanation, no one can say. But the fact remains that gods’ mystic powers will not bite on the Empress of a Billion Dimensions.

Of course, there are gods and god-like beings in some dimensions whose powers don’t depend on sentient belief. They can fight dimensional invaders and conquerers[sic] without any such restrictions." (BOTE p. 182)
 
 
Care to elaborate on what, what?

Given the number of worlds and peoples Istvatha V;han rules, it is virtually certain that some of those worlds generated Umaginal Reals. I haven't read Book of the Empress, so I can't say if anything like this is described there. Regardless, this field seems wide open for GMs to invent their own. My little e-book, Spells of the Devachan: Thaumaturgy from the Sorcerer's Galaxy (available from the HERO Store) includes brief descriptions of some alien Imaginal Worlds you could easily drop into the CU.
 
IIRC, though, Istvatha V'han has conquered several alternate Earths. This brings up a question I never considered in The Mystic World:  Do those alternate Earths also have alternate Parterres? (I didn't consider it because it's just a whole big can of worms, for a book that was already running long.) My first thought, though, is that the alternate Earths each have their own alternate Parterres... including some Earths where one Parterre or another became so dominant it merged with that Earth. But the Multiverse imposes very strong barriers between alternate Imaginal Realms -- even stronger than between material worlds -- so there's not much possibility of, say, multiple Netherworlds teaming up for a cross-dimensional attempt at conquest.
 
I'd be interested to know if Book of the Empress says anything about how Istvatha V'han deals with the Parterres of the Earths she's conquered. If she leaves them alone, the various godly entities might not object to her conquest. After all, she doesn't generally try to impose or suppress native religions. They also might be reluctant to intervene because it's a setting rule that Earth's spirits are very weak against creatures from the Outer Planes. (A rule created so humanity must rely on its own heroes to stop dimensional conquerors, rather than relying on gods.) So it seems quite possible that on some alternate Earths, V'hanian forces conquered the Parterres as well. Heh, imagine a world where the Mythic Resistance Front is led by Tezcatlipoca, Marduk, Mephistopheles and the Archangel Michael. Yeah, these guys are not going to have an easy time working together.
 
Dean Shomshak

Given the number of worlds and peoples Istvatha V;han rules, it is virtually certain that some of those worlds generated Umaginal Reals. I haven't read Book of the Empress, so I can't say if anything like this is described there. Regardless, this field seems wide open for GMs to invent their own. My little e-book, Spells of the Devachan: Thaumaturgy from the Sorcerer's Galaxy (available from the HERO Store) includes brief descriptions of some alien Imaginal Worlds you could easily drop into the CU.
 
IIRC, though, Istvatha V'han has conquered several alternate Earths. This brings up a question I never considered in The Mystic World:  Do those alternate Earths also have alternate Parterres? (I didn't consider it because it's just a whole big can of worms, for a book that was already running long.) My first thought, though, is that the alternate Earths each have their own alternate Parterres... including some Earths where one Parterre or another became so dominant it merged with that Earth. But the Multiverse imposes very strong barriers between alternate Imaginal Realms -- even stronger than between material worlds -- so there's not much possibility of, say, multiple Netherworlds teaming up for a cross-dimensional attempt at conquest.
 
I'd be interested to know if Book of the Empress says anything about how Istvatha V'han deals with the Parterres of the Earths she's conquered. If she leaves them alone, the various godly entities might not object to her conquest. After all, she doesn't generally try to impose or suppress native religions. They also might be reluctant to intervene because it's a setting rule that Earth's spirits are very weak against creatures from the Outer Planes. (A rule created so humanity must rely on its own heroes to stop dimensional conquerors, rather than relying on gods.) So it seems quite possible that on some alternate Earths, V'hanian forces conquered the Parterres as well. Heh, imagine a world where the Mythic Resistance Front is led by Tezcatlipoca, Marduk, Mephistopheles and the Archangel Michael. Yeah, these guys are not going to have an easy time working together.
 
Dean Shomshak

The Utah Cookie War grows even more vicious. No, I'm not making this up.
 
And the Utah cookie war continues: Dirty Dough responds to Crumbl with billboards

Mass transformation of people into a different species.
 
Example: In an issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA years ago, Marvel villain The Viper transformed the population of Washington, D. C. into berserk snake-people. I don't remember why she though this was a good idea, but as best I recall she's kind of nuts.
 
Marvel villain Stegron the Dinosaur Man wanted to turn people into dino-humanoids like himself. He expected he'd rule the altered humanity.
 
In a recent adventure, the PCs in my campaign fought a mad villain from a doomed future in which humanity was almost extinct after a massive nuclear war against the and between megavillains. A group of survivor scientists mutated themselves into grotesque but nigh-unkillable and radiation-resistant creatures (sort of like D&D Umber Hulks). They realized, however, that they were too few to form a viable breeding population. They sent the villain back in time to get a heaqd start by mutating a bunch of people before the war starts, whether the people want it or not. Reconstructing the process with available tools required experimentation, though, resulting in ferocious mutant creatures in the city sewers and subways -- including victims of not-quite-successful human experiments. CHAMPIONS dungeon crawl!
 
Dean Shomshak